Late Nights & Coffee Breaks
by Olywood
Summary: Shizune has yet again been tricked into doing the Hokage's paperwork, but why is Shikamaru also staying late at the office?


**Prompt: **Exhausted.  
One shot for Shikamaru's birthday :D  
Reviews; _s'il vous plaît_?

Late Nights & Coffee Breaks.

Shikamaru slumped his shoulders slightly and irritably rolled his eyes whilst his newly brewed coffee streamed out down into his mug. He cursed Tsunade's name under his breath; semi-aware that there was every possibility that she would be lurking around the corner to hear exactly what Shikamaru was muttering to himself privately.

This was the third time that Shikamaru had "by choice" given up his nights to finish up paperwork for the Hokage. And "by choice" meaning that Tsunade subtly bribed him by assigning him the most exciting missions reserved for her favourite shinobi. He reached over towards the sugar, used the spoon left in by the previous user and removed a good levelled heap from the container. As he left the office coffee room he continued slowly stirring his hot beverage, whilst using his otherwise unoccupied hand to massage his forehead.

-

Shizune yawned loudly; she quickly covered her mouth after still believing that Tsunade was on the premises. She continued to rummage through the quickly growing tower of documents that had rapidly accumulated on her desk; Tsunade insisting that she'd have enough time to finish all the paperwork (and of course that including doing a massive chunk of Tsunade's too) and to go out with the other jonins that night.

That was what would be called a rookie mistake.

Tsunade was probably with them; she'd then have an enormous bitch fit in the morning about her horrendous hangover and the paperwork that Shizune had refused to fill out for her. She was her assistant, not her personal bitch.

Aside form the mountain of paperwork, the kunoichi reached over and fumbled around whilst searching for her mug. Her fingertips bumped into it, she raised it up against the paper and swirled it to find out if there was any coffee left in.

She gently rubbed her coffee coloured eyes before stretching, mentally planning to take a trip to the coffee room further down the corridor. She burrowed her way through the stack of paper looking for a watch to find out what time it was; she swivelled on her chair towards the closed window allowing the moonlight the illuminate the face of the watch. The watch read 19:42, she wasn't surprised by this. As autumn quickly approached the days were growing shorter and Shizune's highly anticipated night life could rage on for longer… not that it ever did.  
She returned to the desk and picked up her mug before retreating to the exit.

-

Shikamaru sauntered along back towards the meeting office where he would be greeted again by the social life ruining paperwork that Tsunade had assigned him with. He noticed many of the lights along the corridor had been turned off; he flicked the switch on to illuminate a clear path back to the office. He gazed blankly at his watch, 19:45.

He silently swore to himself that this would be his last late night at the office.

-

Shizune quietly closed the door behind herself; in a state of unawareness if anyone else had been roped in by Tsunade to get extra brownie points by doing her work. She locked the door also, after various attacks on the village Tsunade had responsibly suggested that all rooms containing important mission documents of Konoha should be locked away. As she turned she was startled to find out that the corridor lights had been left on; she was certain that she'd switched off all the lights on this floor. With coffee mug in tow, she set her sights onto the coffee room further along the corridor.

-

Shikamaru continued to forcefully drag his feet along the corridor back to the office; he brought his beverage to his lips only to burn his tongue mildly. As he flinched he crashed and fell to the ground, spilling a majority of his drink on the floor and on Shizune. Both shinobi tumbled to the ground, Shizune refraining from cursing towards Shikamaru about spilling scalding hot coffee all over her.

Shikamaru immediately apologised after the incident; "I'm so sorry…Shizune-san, here I'll help you up".  
The shinobi bent down and lent the kunoichi a helping hand back up. Shizune made a small bow, "Thank you Shikamaru-kun" whilst smiling somewhat warmly at him.

Shikamaru slotted his hands into his trouser pockets and smiled back at Shizune, "Did Tsunade-sama rope you into doing paperwork for her too?"  
She nodded slightly and blushed subtly before giving a verbal response, "I didn't think anyone else was here"  
She turned her attention back to the broken mug slowly rolling across the corridor floor, "I'm, um, sorry about your coffee Shikamaru-kun"  
He bent down to pick up the scattered fragments from the porcelain container; Shizune assisted.

Their eyes met for an instant, Shikamaru noticed the beauty that he had never noticed before this evening in Shizune's eyes. Her eyes averted his after this as they gradually finished picking up the broken pieces; she shook her head to awaken herself from her daze. Shikamaru noticed the empty coffee mug within the firm clutch of the kunoichi and pointed down the corridor towards the coffee room.  
"Shizune-chan, do you want to get some coffee?" she blushed slightly from his invitation. She smiled at him and led the way back towards the coffee room, she purposefully left her left hand free so that Shikamaru could hold if he wished.

He did.

**FIN.**


End file.
